The Tortoise and His Sunrise | ✓

5. Ice-cream

I was staring at an assigned reading for one of my classes this week, trying to absorb the words into my head. At the back of my mind, the temptation of ice-cream kept calling out to me, and my brain wouldn't stop conjuring images of sundaes and banana splits and parfaits to the forefront of my thoughts.

It didn't help that I was hearing Ashley's quiet sigh for the trillionth time that day. Neither of us had classes in the afternoon today, so she had come over to study with me. We were sitting at one of the many tables around campus in open space with our books and laptops in front of us. I closed my eyes to better hear the distant chirping of some birds.

My mutinous mind produced another image of an ice-cream sandwich, the flavor being a tantalizing strawberry cheesecake.

"Stop it," I moaned, leaning forward to rest my entire left arm on the table and flopping my head down on it.

A frown grew on Ashley's face as she paused in her note-writing.

"Stop what?"

"Don't mind me," I whispered, closing my eyes. "I'm just talking to myself. I want ice-cream so bad."

"You can get ice-cream later."

"Yeah, but the problem is that I want it now."

"That's life," she said, sounding entirely too unsympathetic for my liking. "Sometimes we need to wait for the good things."

"I don't know why you're trying to sound so deep over ice-cream."

She snorted. "You're sounding more and more like Nolan with each passing day."

"Isn't that a compliment?"

"Shh, I'm trying to focus."

Sighing, I closed my eyes and willed the delectable-looking hot fudge sundae in my head to disappear into oblivion.

Back off, Hot Fudge Sundae! I need to read!

While my head was still resting on my arm, some voices from a distance reached my ears. We were sitting in front of a building where there were frequent passersby heading to their classes, so it wasn't uncommon to hear people having conversations while they walked.

"What?"

"Pathetic."

As the shuffling sounds of their footsteps got louder, so did their voices.

"Yeah. What's worse is that he looks like he should be in high school. You know what? I bet he is. There's no way that guy is a student here."

Strange. That voice sounded a bit familiar.

"Seriously? How young did he look?"

Maybe I should get an ice-cream sandwich after this. Chocolate chip mint sounds so good...

"Fifteen, maybe sixteen, tops. She probably asked him to come onto campus just to put on an act in front of me."

Now that they were getting closer, I felt like I was on the brink of recognizing the voice of the person who'd spoken just now.

"That's sad though, man."

Someone cackled.

No, how about froyo? I want to get almond flakes as a topping.

"Imagine how scared that poor girl was after you asked her out that she had to get some kid to come and pretend to be her boyfriend in front of you."

Another person snickered.

"You probably creeped her out real good. Dude, what exactly did you do to her?"

I hope Ashley can come with me later to get froyo.